Isabelle Weidemann skates to Canada's 1st medal of Beijing 2022 with bronze in women's 3,000m
CBC
The first Canadian medal of Beijing 2022 belongs to speed skater Isabelle Weidemann.
The Ottawa native earned bronze in the women's 3,000 metres with a time of three minutes 58.64 seconds on Saturday in China.
Weidemann becomes the first Canadian woman to climb the podium in long track since Vancouver 2010, when Kristina Groves also took bronze in the same event.
"It's pretty surreal right now, I'm pretty emotional. But I'm very excited," she told CBC Sports' Anastasia Bucsis after the race.
WATCH | Weidemann captures Canada's 1st medal in Beijing:
The Netherlands' Irene Schouten won gold in an Olympic record time of 3:56.93, while Italian Francesca Lollobrigida snagged silver in 3:58.06.
Weidemann, 26, took a steady approach to her race after watching multiple previous skaters burn out after strong starts at the National Skating Centre, also known as the Ice Ribbon, in Beijing.
The Canadian, ranked first in long distances on the World Cup tour, remained consistent through every 400m split, never eclipsing the 32-second mark in any lap.
The success of the approach paid out in real time even as Weidemann, skating in the inside lane, fell behind Norway's Ragne Wiklund on the outside to start.
"I was a little bit shaky at the start. I was really nervous going to the line. And I knew that I just had to get through the first few laps before I could start to fight and really show the work that I've done," she said.
But Weidemann, who finished seventh in the event at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, slowly caught Wiklund in the back stretch, and her time was good enough to sit in first place with one pairing to come.
"I think I hit about four laps to go and I could see my pair was starting to slow down a little bit and I knew I had a little bit more so I think at that point I was like, 'I can fight this.'"
Schouten and Lollobrigida pipped Weidemann in the final pairing to take the top two spots on the podium.
No matter, the race can only be described as a success for the Canadian, who said beforehand she was just concentrating on herself.
On the ice inside a rink in Etobicoke, Ont., where Team Canada was running its second Olympic training camp this past fall, head coach Troy Ryan skated over to Blayre Turnbull.
Canadian ski jumper Abi Strate started the new year with a bang by soaring to her first career World Cup victory on Thursday.
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